concern RE: deferral info for ESA

Am writing as after having read the advice on here relating to the 2yr deferral for ESA claimants awaiting a re-assessment. I was due to be re-assessed in May, but after reading that no referrals for standard ESA assessments were currently being made, expected that I too would be deferred. This has not been the case. My refferal was handed over to Atos for re-assessment in April, bang on time. No 2yr deferral.

I didn't prepare, was not expecting to be re-assessed, so was in a right mess when form came through. I'm not the only one. I know of many others who have also been re-assessed as normal, in various parts of the country, on many forums who too were expecting a deferral.

After having spoken to DWP & Atos, we were all told that deferrals were only happening in specific areas with huge backlogs, and only then, the cases referred were only a tiny amount. They both said it's business as usual, and that the DWP have never stopped sending them over referrals. I am concerned that somebody who may be expecting to be referred, could be sent out a new ESA50, it get lost in the post, the claimant not expecting it does nothing until their money is stopped for not having returned the form.

I left myself in a complete mess with no time to gather evidence. I don't want others to have to go through this too, expecting a deferral.

LMJ37 wrote: Am writing as after having read the advice on here relating to the 2yr deferral for ESA claimants awaiting a re-assessment. I was due to be re-assessed in May, but after reading that no referrals for standard ESA assessments were currently being made, expected that I too would be deferred. This has not been the case. My refferal was handed over to Atos for re-assessment in April, bang on time. No 2yr deferral.

I didn't prepare, was not expecting to be re-assessed, so was in a right mess when form came through. I'm not the only one. I know of many others who have also been re-assessed as normal, in various parts of the country, on many forums who too were expecting a deferral.

After having spoken to DWP & Atos, we were all told that deferrals were only happening in specific areas with huge backlogs, and only then, the cases referred were only a tiny amount. They both said it's business as usual, and that the DWP have never stopped sending them over referrals. I am concerned that somebody who may be expecting to be referred, could be sent out a new ESA50, it get lost in the post, the claimant not expecting it does nothing until their money is stopped for not having returned the form.

I left myself in a complete mess with no time to gather evidence. I don't want others to have to go through this too, expecting a deferral.

Hi LMJ37,

I am sorry to hear of this !!!

Since : The News broke on this issue, I can only recall two other members that have received an ESA50 for reassessment.

Further, this deferment was admitted by Ministers in Parliament.

As we have informed members, this deferment is only a change in operational procedures, therefore there could be regional differences depending on the back log that they had to work through.

I consider that an ESA50 should be treated as "a work in progress" i.e. I would use the Pdf version, and keep it up to date, as and when any changes may occur.

Using The PDF Version Of The ESA50 Questionnaire

If the format or questions in the ESA50 change, it is quite easy to amend and copy and paste existing information over to any new version.

Of course, this is only my personal opinion, and members should decide what is best for them.

bro58

LMJ37 wrote:

After having spoken to DWP & Atos, we were all told that deferrals were only happening in specific areas with huge backlogs

It would be useful to know what those specific areas were
Despite the news of the deferments, every day is still a worry for me, I dare not relax, expecting a reassessment to arrive.
Keeping a pdf up to date is probably the best defence, as advised by Bro

On another forum I saw someone saying that they had also just had to return an ESA50 for a reassessment; that post is dated May 29th, just a week ago. Someone else replies to this by saying that "some were held over from before Christmas, and are currently being sent out, because of delays."

I don't know if that is true, but it does seem a lot more plausible than the information (or misinformation?) given out by the DWP and Atos to LMJ37, claiming that only a tiny amount of claimants were having their reassessments deferred. If the latter were true, surely we would have seen far, far more people on this forum reporting the unexpected arrival of an ESA50? And unless I'm wrong, the original internal DWP memo obtained by B & W simply stated that reassessments would cease until further notice - not that some reassessments would be deferred and others wouldn't, or that deferrals would only occur in certain areas. I think the same was true of Penning's confirmation of deferrals on the floor of the Commons and the statement about the suspension of reassessments on the Atos website. It just doesn't make sense to have only a handful of people on here reporting that they've received an ESA50 for reassessment if most people are being reassessed as normal.

Like summertrain, I dread the post arriving every day in case there's a nasty surprise. I'm not exactly sure when my reassessment is due, but my best guess is around the end of August. It's always been my experience that the form arrives at least three months in advance of the due assessment date, sometimes a bit more than that, so I thought hearing nothing by the end of May was a hopeful sign. However, I've read on here that it can be sent out as little as two months in advance. If so, I suppose I can't start to feel cautiously optimistic until at least early July.

tintack wrote: On another forum I saw someone saying that they had also just had to return an ESA50 for a reassessment; that post is dated May 29th, just a week ago. Someone else replies to this by saying that "some were held over from before Christmas, and are currently being sent out, because of delays."

I don't know if that is true, but it does seem a lot more plausible than the information (or misinformation?) given out by the DWP and Atos to LMJ37, claiming that only a tiny amount of claimants were having their reassessments deferred. If the latter were true, surely we would have seen far, far more people on this forum reporting the unexpected arrival of an ESA50? And unless I'm wrong, the original internal DWP memo obtained by B & W simply stated that reassessments would cease until further notice - not that some reassessments would be deferred and others wouldn't, or that deferrals would only occur in certain areas. I think the same was true of Penning's confirmation of deferrals on the floor of the Commons and the statement about the suspension of reassessments on the Atos website. It just doesn't make sense to have only a handful of people on here reporting that they've received an ESA50 for reassessment if most people are being reassessed as normal.

Like summertrain, I dread the post arriving every day in case there's a nasty surprise. I'm not exactly sure when my reassessment is due, but my best guess is around the end of August. It's always been my experience that the form arrives at least three months in advance of the due assessment date, sometimes a bit more than that, so I thought hearing nothing by the end of May was a hopeful sign. However, I've read on here that it can be sent out as little as two months in advance. If so, I suppose I can't start to feel cautiously optimistic until at least early July.

Hi tt,

You raise some valid points.

For all we know, the few people who are currently receiving ESA50's for reassessment may well have been re-referred to ATOS prior to 20/01/14, when deferrals officially began.

Anyone who was already re-referred to ATOS would have to go through the re-assessment process.

Maybe, ATOS have only just got round to issuing the ESA50's, due to the backlog.

I am afraid that we do not know for certain, and any thoughts are pure speculation

I do know that we had a spate of members receiving ESA50's very early around April, May, June last year. Some of these ESA50's were arriving some 5 months before the end of the prognosis period, when the norm is around 2 months before.

Maybe this was an attempt to get as many reassessments as possible into the system, as they were aware of the impending problems.

We should also remember that all IB, IS and SDA migrations to ESA should have been completed by April 2014.

They have not, and I read recently that as many as 10% of the above recipients have still to be migrated over to ESA.

bro58

What really annoys me is that DWP and Atos are not being honest about this, and letting people suffer. I agree with Tintack, that we would be hearing of many more people being reassessed if as LMJ37 was told, there was only a small number of people being deferred. This is clearly misinformation, and very cruel. Whay can't they be straight with people and tell them the truth. I dare not ring them for fear of triggering a reassessment, so i will just have to suffer on not knowing.